AHMEDABAD: Fewer engineers may join the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad(IIM-A) after CAT this year. In a significant change in its admissions policy, the premier management institute is expected to welcome students from diverse backgrounds.
According to the institute, over 96 per cent of students in the 2012-14 and 2013-15 batches have an engineering background. In order to bring this number to 80 per cent, IIM-A has proposed two major changes in CAT 2013, which will have a considerable influence on the composition of the batch. The formula for calculating the application rating (AR) has been changed; a provision for direct shortlist to the written analysis and personal interview (WA-PI) round for top performers in the five academic categories has been included.
The IIMs have faced flak for becoming bastions of graduate engineers, mostly from IITs. The changes proposed in the admission criteria is in line with IIM-A's desire to break the mould and increase diversity among the incoming students with respect to their academic background.
"There were several complaints since the past two years that due to the multiplicative calculation of AR scores, there was too much focus on marks obtained in X and XII standards. Under the old system, if the candidate had fared badly in any one of the exams but showed exceptional performance otherwise, it would have hampered his chances in getting shortlisted. By giving more weightage to performance in the undergraduate degree and shifting to a completely additive model, the proposed system makes sure that recent performances are given adequate weightage as performances farther back," IIM-A posted on its blog with data compiled by the institute's media cell.
The number of students without work experience or a master's degree is also set to increase in the personal interview round at IIM-A, as it will not give any points for work experience or for postgraduation in its new system. Currently, freshers constitute around 27 per cent of the batch strength.
IIM, Bangalore, and IIM, Calcutta both have higher percentage of non-engineers in their current batches as compared to IIM-A.
According to the institute, over 96 per cent of students in the 2012-14 and 2013-15 batches have an engineering background. In order to bring this number to 80 per cent, IIM-A has proposed two major changes in CAT 2013, which will have a considerable influence on the composition of the batch. The formula for calculating the application rating (AR) has been changed; a provision for direct shortlist to the written analysis and personal interview (WA-PI) round for top performers in the five academic categories has been included.
The IIMs have faced flak for becoming bastions of graduate engineers, mostly from IITs. The changes proposed in the admission criteria is in line with IIM-A's desire to break the mould and increase diversity among the incoming students with respect to their academic background.
"There were several complaints since the past two years that due to the multiplicative calculation of AR scores, there was too much focus on marks obtained in X and XII standards. Under the old system, if the candidate had fared badly in any one of the exams but showed exceptional performance otherwise, it would have hampered his chances in getting shortlisted. By giving more weightage to performance in the undergraduate degree and shifting to a completely additive model, the proposed system makes sure that recent performances are given adequate weightage as performances farther back," IIM-A posted on its blog with data compiled by the institute's media cell.
The number of students without work experience or a master's degree is also set to increase in the personal interview round at IIM-A, as it will not give any points for work experience or for postgraduation in its new system. Currently, freshers constitute around 27 per cent of the batch strength.
IIM, Bangalore, and IIM, Calcutta both have higher percentage of non-engineers in their current batches as compared to IIM-A.
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